Blogging....

1. What I like about blogging?
Blogging is like a personal diary for me of what i want or have to say. One thing I like about blogging is that I'm free to voice out any dissatisfaction, sadness or happiness through written words. Moreover, I can create my blog using of my choice from the template to the layout even the content and so on. I can even include anything that i want in the blog. Thinking is associated with blogging to me. why because when you blog, you need to think of the content first.

2. What I do not like about blogging?
Basically, there nothing that i do not like about blogging because this is my first time and I felt very anticipated.

3. What i have gain from blogging?
4. How?
One thing creativity. I can create the layout of my blog, edit here and there to make it more attractive and eye-catching although my current blog does not look that creative because it follows the template given set but still I can include anything I want and where I want to place them. Secondly is language skills. I felt good that blogging helps me to improve my language skills particularly writing skills when I post ideas, information or even share feelings. This has made me to develop myself to be a good writer, I mean in my position as a student. Moreover, critical thinking is also another advantage that I've gained through blogging in which I need to make a reflection as well as need to think of what to write as what I am doing now. Soft skills such as leadership in which i gain full control of the blog because it is mine. I can do whatever with it. In fact, by sending in post, it has helped me a lot in developing keyboarding skill in which i can type faster with much lesser typing errors. I learnt to share information with my friends. This is because sharing is caring. It is not the matter of what you lose but what you've gained. That is what matter most.

5. What I like about this course?
I getto know many applications as well as different sites with different purposes and functions. Besides, I develop three skills that I myself never attempt to do so that is photo editing, audio editing and aslo video editing. The other thing is that I learnt about e-book. Before, i have only heard baout it but now I know how to do it.. It would be helpful to me when I am teaching.

6. What I do not like about this course?
A the beginning, I thought this course will teach us how to develop non-technological resources and how to use resources that are already available in daily life in teaching and learning process. The task set for us is not direct to educational purposes. I understand that we need to gain the initial skill first but we should be thinking about developing resources for educational purpose not for the sake of the task only. Another thing is too much of technological usage in which made me feel like I'm in a Technology course.

7. What I have learnt from this course?
From this course, I have learnt which softwares or application or web sites that I can download or convert. I also learnt how to edit photo, video and audio clip. In fact, e-book is the one that interest me alot. Although it is basically PowerPoint presentation, but the inculcation of a genre that is story make it interesting as though as you are reading storybooks online. The presentation in groups with regards to different topics also gave me some information about learners, about teaching language, about teacher in developing resources as well as resources in relation to language.

8. What i do not expect but have learnt in this course?
I do not expect that this course will be technologically inclined because there is another course that we need to take for this semester. However i learnt editing skills such as photo editing, video editing and audion editing. Not to mention, e-book is the also one new thing that I've learnt.

9. What I expect but have not learnt from this course?
I expect to learn about authentic materials in which how are we going to eveluate the materials if we want them for teaching purposes. From selecting to editing and lastly using the materials. But that is the one that I have not learnt in this course.

10. If I can change anything about the course, state what it is and explain.
I want to have this course to not to be oo technologically inclined. This is because resources do not only involve technological resources. Things that are available in daily life are also resources. It only depends on the teacher how he or she selects , evaluates and uses them for teaching purposes. I will want to have non-technological resources being brought into this course as well and to teach on how to develop materials without using technology but appropriate for teaching and learning purposes for instance, flash card, word cards and so on. I am also in favour of being to learn how to select, evaluate and use authentic materials that is available in daily life such as newspaper, brochure, poster and so on for teaching and learning.

Children softwares...

Children softwares are increasingly famous these days. They are available at any entertainment store in which sells VCD or DVD or even bookstores. I realized that parents these days have increasingly aware of the importance of education. That is why many children softwares have been produced to meet the demands of the parents. Most the parents that have a computer a home will at least buy one software as an enhancement for their children learning. Some will also buy the software for their children age 3 to 4. During this age, children will definitely get anticipated with the activities contained in the software. This is because there are many reasons why the children are interested to attend to the activities. One of the reasons is because of the layout of the software in which they are colourful with animations. This itself is able to attract children because children naturally like colours and images that are bright with many colours will definitely gain their attention. Enhanced with the animations that are used in the software will gain more focus from the children as it includes the element of fun. Moreover, the use of sounds will further reinforce the fun element of the software. As I was playing with one of the software owned by my cousin, I felt that it was interesting. I realized that through the activities children develop some soft skills namely thinking skills and leadership. Thinking skills is involve where children need to think in order to answer the questions or attend to the task set. Some words are of the same level of proficiency but some words are slightly one level higher which will help them to acquire new vocabulary. Leadership in being instilled in children whereby they make their own decision in choosing and solving the task set. They have the authority to set the pace and be independent in solving the task with the clues given in the software.

Realistic

Being realistic is one of the characteristics that teachers should possessed in planning lesson to be carried out in class. This is because planning is an important stage in a teaching and learning process in which the teacher must take into account many factors such as the content whether suitable or not, the activities to be carry out during the lesson according to different stages, the desired outcomes expected from the students, the ability of the students, the environment, teaching aids and also the time whether single period lesson or double period lesson. All those are vital in order to make the teaching and learning process successful and to achieve the desired learning outcome. When planning, the teacher should try to create activities as interesting as possible to gain students' interest and attention. However, the activities planned should be able to make the students learn and not only interest them. This leads to the development of teaching aids that will be used in the lesson. The teaching aids developed should be creative and innovative in the sense that will attract the students to stay focus and want to learn. This falls back to the teacher to be as innovative and creative as possible when developing the teaching aids to assist the lesson. The teaching aids too should be varied depending on the content, purpose as well as time of the lesson. They serve to deliver the content in a more interesting way for instance using technology will gain more interest of the students as it involves animation, songs, clips and colourful pictures compare to the non-tech teaching aids. But the non- tech teaching aids too serve purpose in a lesson when some of the content that cant be delivered through technology is done in a non-tech form. Both forms of presentation can be used at the same time also as they reinforce each other. The teaching aids must be big and clear for all the students to view. Hence they are able to see clearly and understand the topic better. Moreover, the teaching aids should be used meaningfully when delivering the content of the topic and it would be better if the teaching aids are being used again for other lesson. It shows that the teaching aids are reusable and they are meaningful as well as useful. Even if the teacher could not or have no time to create a new teaching aid, he or she can just serve the internet and download appropriate resources to convey the information. But, the teacher must evaluate that particular resource, adapt or adopt some parts of it. Here, the teacher must be literate in technology in order to exploit that resource. It all come back to the teacher in which the teacher's role is very important. The teacher must be realistic, well-equipped and prepared always and all the time. I hope i will do so in the future...

It's all about materials..

This week's class is basically about materials. Materials is the physical substances used as inputs for production or manufacturing. So, when we relate this to the teaching field, the physical substances will be the teachings aids brought in by the teacher, the input will be the content of the lesson which is reinforces by the teaching aids and lastly the production will be pupils acquiring the four language skills whereby they are able to use and practise the skills accordingly and meaningfully. So this has gave me an outlook in which materials are vital in language learning in which they play the role to assist language learning. Anything could be the materials as long as there are language used in the material. However, the materials should be be taken baldly and being used as teaching aids because of certain reason. First is the suitability, whether the material is suitable for the topic and it have the content that needed for language learning. Second, is the exploitibility factor in which the material can be exploited further for the use of learning activities in class. Third will be the readability whereby it touches the language difficulty in which suits the pupils' level of proficiency. Lastly, familiarity factor in which it does not look akward to the pupils. Not to mention, the material used should gain pupils' interest and lend their eyes till the end of the lesson. In fact, the material selected too should trigger pupils' mind and helps them develop their thinking skill. Before making decision of which material to be used in class, the teacher should first collect few sample of materials and then evaluate them. Factors that should be taken into considerations are mentioned above when evaluating. During this process, the teacher might consider adapting or adopting the material or probably develop a new material based on the actual one. This involves teacher's creativity as well as judgement. I realized that selecting and developing materials to be used in class in not as easy as it is. This is because the material should be functional and useful in language learning. This indirecly influece the teacher's planning of a lesson. So, for all the teacher-to-be, we should always be prepared and always be aware of the challenges ahead and one of them is this which is selecting, developing and using materials. This is because i realized that materials used as teaching aids serve as a bridge to connect pupils with the content. Thus, it shows how heavy the duty played the material in order to make language learning successful for the pupils..

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Honestly, i am confused and blurred about the 3rd assignment. As far as I am concerned, in Malaysian context, a single period is only 30 minutes while double period is 1 hour which is 60 minutes. But, why does we were ask to develop40 minutes and 80 minutes lesson activity? It does not make sense. Sometimes the teacher could not even carry out all the activities planned in an hour. This is due to some factors such as the time taken up to set up the teaching aids, pupils settling down, previous subject teacher takes extra time and many more. Planning a lesson in a vital element for a teacher. Hence, during that progress, the teacher should take into consideration of many factors as mentioned above other that pupils' ability, previous knowledge and so on. In fact, the teacher should even prepare extra plans as options in case of difficulties or changes that occur suddenly. Not only that, teacher should be prepared in terms of the teaching aids, how to manage the class, what solution to apply if a sudden problem occur and so on which will not affect pupils' learning negatively. Basically, the teacher should be mentally, emotionally and physically prepared for the lesson. This is so that the teacher will be able to carry out her or his responsibility in imparting knowledge meaningfully to pupils.

Assesing and Manipulating resources

This assignment is quiet hectic I would say. I have been working with my partner since last week but still we have not complete it fully.. Oh GOD!! it is going to be due soon..no more time to waste...need to warm up and speed up..time flies very fast..no way i'm going to lose to it. IT is really difficult deciding on what activities to be created using Michael Jackson's The Earth Song. We were lost at first so we did on our second video first. The second video is much more easier to think of what activity can be done from that video. This showed me the reality of how difficult is it in manipulting a resource because as usual need to consider many factors such as suitability of the video, canbe exploited or not and so on. After cracking pur heads on the second video, we then moved on to The Earth Song video. We had to really squeezed our brains to search for the appropriate activity to be carried out through the exploitation of this video. Huh..luckily, our brain do work.. we were able to come up with activities. Consideration on the appropriateness of the activities and usefullness have never been missed out when making decisions on the activities.
Till the end of the day, both of us were tired already...

Completion of task..

There is a sign of little relief in me after completed the four language skills task. I'm glad that my group members cooperated well and each of us did help each other in sharing opinion and guiding. Talking about groups, group work is an essential criteria in order to complete successfully a task set for a group. Group members should be able to guide each other by sharing or exchanging ideas. Then, the work can be improved if there are any weaknesses as combination of ideas from different people provide a stronger quality of the idea rather than individual idea. Elements of creativity might come in when many brains work together. Although it is done individually, we managed to work as a group and completed it on time.
With regards to the task, it is essential for a teacher to be able to choose a material or resource that is appropriate with the lesson depending what is the focus of the lesson, whether the language skills, vocabulary or grammar. Careful consideration should be carried out when choosing the resources or even developing one as it should be appropriate for the learners' level of proficiency or one level higher as suggested by Krashen's comprehensible input hypothesis. This is because the input should be comprehensible as well as understandable to the learners in order for learning to take place in a meaningful way.